


Not a Monster

by Veldritch



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: American History, Friendship, Gen, no archive warnings but some disturbing content in the history
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 11:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6192646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veldritch/pseuds/Veldritch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shortly after "Avengers: Age of Ultron," Steve and Natasha have a chat that takes a turn down a very dark road of American history, leading to a breakthrough for Natasha.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not a Monster

“So what do you think of the new line-up?”

Steve and Natasha were leaning against a banister to the balcony overlooking one of the yards of their new facility, watching the rest of the Avengers pack up their gear after a hard afternoon of training. Even Steve was a little out-of-breath; he’d grown used to working with a man in a robot suit, a supernatural alien, and a green temperamental giant, but Wanda and the Vision’s powers were completely new. They’d only begun to start exploring their true potential.

If Natasha was as tired as him, she didn’t let it show. “It works,” she said as she shook her hair back from out of her face. “The only question is whether it’ll work as well as the old one.”

“Well, if you remember, the old one only ever worked half the time.”

She smirked at him. “You boys always had quite a range of opinions for a bunch of homogeneous white-guys.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say _homogeneous_. I mean, one of us technically isn’t even human. But…you are right about the optics. It’s not good for representation to have Earth’s heroes look so similar. Honestly, we should probably try to be even _more_ diverse—“

“Steve,” Natasha interrupted as he began to ramble, “have you been going on tumblr again?”

“Please, Nat, you’ve seen what the Howling Commandos looked like, right? I don’t need 21st century internet culture to know that having a diverse team means diverse viewpoints, which means fresh ideas that get the job done.” (He had been on tumblr before, of course, but had given up once he realized he would never catch up on the pop-culture references.)

“You know,” she said as she began to walk with him back into the building, “Fury said you didn’t even complain about having to take the sensitivity training he assigned you after you woke up. Pretty impressive for a guy from the forties.”

Steve chuckled sadly. “I may be a white man, but I wasn’t exactly swimming in privilege back then, Nat.”

“Ah right, the whole ‘Irish Catholic’ thing. Plus being poor and orphaned probably didn’t help. Now that I think about it, Steve, you were really only a few steps up from being Oliver Twist, weren't you?”

“No, I don’t even mean any of that. I mean…” Steve stopped. They were inside now, standing in front of the over-sized Avenger’s logo that Tony had insisted on emblazoning on the wall. He looked at it for a long moment. _That’s what I am now, and all of this was 70 years ago_ … “Did you ever wonder why I let Bucky choose my dates? It’s because the only girl I ever tried to ask out on my own told me straight to my face that people like me should be sterilized.”

He turned to see Natasha’s stunned expression. “What…they…” she blinked hard. “ _Why_?”

He shrugged. “Most of my conditions were congenital, and it was the height of the eugenics movement. Almost everyone was on board, especially in the progressive circles I traveled it. The only difference between eugenicists and the Nazis was in who they thought deserved to be wiped out. Even the U.S. government felt obligated to tell me that the serum wouldn’t affect my ‘germline cells,’ so everything I’d had could be passed on to my children,” he grimaced before continuing, “and I should responsibly let anyone I considered reproducing with know that.”

“That’s…that’s awful.” Natasha’s eyes were still as wide as ever, but her voice was losing its shock and turning flat. “Did they really…do that to people? Sterilize them?”

“Eh, to men, not so much, unless you were imprisoned or institutionalized. But to women? All the time, especially women of color. I mean, it was one of the first things I looked up on Wikipedia, and can you believe that continued into the _1970s_? In America, even after the Holocaust!” Steve’s voice started to rise as he began reliving the moment he’d first read it.

“I…I didn’t know that.”

“And it wasn’t just the idea that I might have women reject me simply because they wanted to produce the fittest offspring, or something, it was just…it was knowing I wasn’t ‘fit.’ That they denied my human dignity. But of course, that was the _point_. Of the rhetoric, of the sterilization campaigns. To establish that some people didn’t count as fully human in the eyes of society.”

Nataha’s eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms across her chest. “It would definitely be dehumanizing to undergo an operation like that,” she said quietly.

Steve shook his head. “That’s not how I see it. The only person who’s dehumanized by forced sterilization is the person doing it, or the society that lets it happen. Our dignity comes from what we  _do_ , not what's done _to_ us. And…it may have taken too long, but I’m proud that America finally reali—Nat, what’s wrong?”

Natasha had started trembling and turned away from, and he’d realized she wasn’t just returning to her normal aloof self after an initial shock, there was something seriously disturbing her. He reached to try to touch her, but she pulled back.

“Nothing. I’m fine, Steve.”

“Did I say something wrong?”

“I’m _fine_ ,” she insisted, and threw on a smile, composure restored. “You need to stop worrying about me so much, I’m a big girl.” She tossed her hair and began striding down the corridor, making him dash to catch up. “You know, though, if you care about it this much, maybe you should talk about this. An educational kind of thing. It’s definitely _not_ something I learned about in American history books.”

“Heh, well, it’s do that or the whole ‘vaccinate your children for crying out loud’ campaign I want to start. Do you know how much whooping cough _hurts_? I broke three ribs when I was six.” Natasha laughed at his pained expression. “I’m serious! It’s awful and there are people who won’t vaccinate their children against it!”

“Steve Rogers, saving the world one educational campaign at a time?”

“Once we get the new team working together, anyway.”

“Right. You and _Sam_ seem to be in-sync, but we need the rest of the team as cozy.” She waggled her eyebrows at him.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Ugh, first Tony, now Sam, do you _really_ think I’m—” Steve hesitated. He knew that expression, when something in her smile didn’t reach the rest of her face. “Natasha, I mean it, _are_ you ok?”

“Yeah. I’m…I’m great.” When he gave her a skeptical look she finally returned a real smile. “I mean it, Steve, I’m glad we had this little talk.”

She patted him on the arm and started to walk down the stairs to where her rooms in the facility were. But halfway down the steps she paused for a moment, looked back up at him, and said:

“It’s always good to know you’re not alone.”

**Author's Note:**

> Because someone needed to tell Natasha that, and if it wasn't going to be her love interest then it'll have to be her best friend.


End file.
